Nip prejudice in the bud

NSW Opposition Leader
Barry O’Farrell
delivered a commendably wide-ranging speech – for a politician in election mode – last Monday, in which he promised as premier to put out the welcome mat to migrants and use their skills to revive the state’s economy. He asserted that Labor at the federal and state levels had failed to leverage immigration and the state’s diverse cultural heritage, but he believed this human capital would be as important to revival as more conventional capital.

Just a few days later it is unclear whether Mr O’Farrell will have much success with this strategy if he wins office next month, if those prospective and current immigrants have been following the other messages from some of Mr O’Farrell’s ­colleagues, notably federal immigration spokesman
Scott Morrison
.

Mr Morrison has admitted he was wrong to attack funeral arrangements for asylum seekers who died off Christmas Island last month and has denied he is seeking to exploit community concern about Muslim migrants. But the opposition still has some questions to answer about how Australia should attract the immigrants it needs to sustain economic growth if senior politicians are only too happy to play to community prejudices.

Federal Labor wasn’t above more subtly playing this card during the last election campaign but has now changed course by embracing multiculturalism again.

This approach places Immigration Minister
Chris Bowen
in a similar space to Mr O’Farrell and his colleague
Joe Hockey
, who has disassociated himself from Mr Morrison’s original comments.

Mr Bowen was right to identify that multiculturalism in Australia is about more than simply obtaining guest workers to fill holes in the labour market. Australia wants immigrants to become citizens and embrace a new life while also contributing to Australia’s evolution as a migrant nation.

Australia needs to defend its orderly approach to immigration by discouraging queue-jumping by air or sea. But Mr Morrison would do well to observe that the political upheaval in north Africa is now sending far more illegal immigrants to European countries than Australia ever sees. And if he is genuinely concerned about Muslim radicalism he should speak to his opposition colleagues about their ­support for ­cutting the Howard government-inspired aid-funded school-building program in Indonesia. It is a considered attempt to nip radicalism in the bud in contrast to an outburst over a tragic funeral that may well just discourage immigration.